Farewell
by elfmaiden4legs
Summary: S6 SPOLIERS! SUMMARY ALSO CONTAINS S6 SPOILERS!     After boarding the plane which will take them off the island for the final time, Kate feels Jack's passing and realises that she will never see him again, seeking comfort in a somewhat changed Sawyer!


**Farewell**

Kate looked out of the tiny window, down at the forest and the beach below – the shoreline where they'd set up their first camp, the place where it had all started, and as they started on their long journey out to sea she turned to Sawyer in the seat beside her. In all the excitement of making it to get the plane, her desperation to save Claire and convince her to come with them, she hadn't spared a thought for the one person she'd really wanted to be able to share this experience with now.

Her heart shattered, the pain of sudden realisation tearing at her soul, and the tears welled in her eyes as she suddenly realised that she was never going to see him again.

"Jack's gone isn't he?" She choked as she asked Sawyer the one question she really didn't want to know the answer to.

But Sawyer nodded. "I think so Freckles." He sighed. "I think so." And as Kate started to sob, thick heavy tears which tore at her soul, he wrapped a comforting arm around her.

Kate cried freely, the tears spilling over onto her cheeks and soaking Sawyer t-shirt until she felt that she couldn't cry anymore. It took a few more heaving breaths however before she was finally able to calm her dry sobs.

When she'd dried her eyes she looked up, and was surprised to see the wet tear stains on Sawyer's own cheeks before it suddenly dawned on her what he'd just called her.

"You just called me Freckles." She sniffed. "I haven't heard you call me that in such a long time."

Sawyer looked down at her. "We're the same now, you and me." He smiled sadly. "Juliet's gone too… she's not coming back either."

Of course Sawyer was hurting too, and she hadn't even noticed, she hadn't even considered him throughout all of this, nor spared a thought for his suffering; Jack… now Sawyer, she'd been so selfish.

Kate didn't say anything, she couldn't, as another flow of silent tears escaped her words failed to communicate what it was she felt, and what she wanted to say, but her expression said it all.

After a few moments of silence lapsed between them however Sawyer turned back to her.

"I'll look after you." He spoke that she wasn't sure she'd even heard him correctly at first.

"What?" She frowned.

"I said I'd look after you." He responded in his familiar southern drawl as she turned to look back up at him.

All trace of resentment and bitterness had gone from him now, the Sawyer they'd all come to know in the preceding days and weeks after the crash had gone. He'd turned into someone Kate barely recognised at first, but it was a change which had slowly been taking effect right in front of her eyes, from the first lonely night they'd all spent together – shell-shocked, traumatised, terrified, looking to each other for comfort, reassurance, and friendship. The island had changed them all, Sawyer included.

"We're all that's left now Freckles." He continued. "We should stick together, I'm willing to bet that right now you need me, and I sure as hell need you." He shrugged. "Who'd believe us anyway?"

Despite her tears Kate smiled at this. He was right… of course he was right.

"You really miss her don't you?" She sighed, as she dried her eyes on the back of her hands, just as another flow of tears escaped her.

Sawyer nodded. "Every second of every day."

"I'm going to miss Jack so much." She sobbed as she leaned back into his comforting embrace. "I never thought goodbye would hurt so much… I really love him."

"I know Freckles." He sighed, tears glistening in his own eyes. "I guess I always knew deep down. You needed stability, not someone who would lead you even further astray, I understand. Juliet saved me, she changed me too. She showed me a better side to me, a side I'd turned y back on a long time ago…

"Kate…" He suddenly faltered as she reached to caress the cold and clammy fingers of his palm affectionately.

"What is it?" She asked, and looked up instantly as she felt his body go tense beneath her embrace, sensing something more was preying on his mind, but Sawyer simply shook his head.

"Nothing." He reassured her.

Kate sighed. "Jack proposed to me." She revealed quite suddenly, and Sawyer immediately looked down at her.

"We were engaged for a while." She explained.

"What happened?" He asked, struggling not to appear too interested, but curiosity and concern got the better of him.

Kate shook her head. "Nothing…" She explained. "Perhaps that was the problem… things just proved too difficult to maintain a relationship. I had Aaron to look after, and Jack was struggling to readjust to life after the island… I guess it just wasn't the right time for either of us… I kept the ring though." She smiled, before turning to take one final glance out of the tiny window, the tears still streaming down her face. "I didn't even get the chance to say goodbye."

"I don't think this is goodbye." Sawyer shook his head.

"What do you mean?" Kate frowned.

Sawyer glanced down at her and as he did so a strange smile passed over his face. "I don't know." He responded. "Just a feeling I've got, as though they're all still here, they're not really gone…" He sighed. "After she died I asked Miles to try and talk to her. Juliet asked Miles to tell me that the bomb worked. I think maybe… I don't know. I just don't think this is the end… only the beginning."

Kate frowned, her brow furrowed, perplexed by Sawyer's words. This certainly wasn't the Sawyer they'd all once known… he's become sad, and sensitive.

"So where do we go from here?" She asked. "How do we carry on?"

Sawyer sighed. "Wear the ring Freckles, wear it everyday to remind you of Jack, and the ones we loved will never truly leave us."

"I don't think I can live without him." She sobbed.

"You're going to have to…" Sawyer exclaimed, suddenly turning to her vehemently with this, and gently reaching out a hand to turn her cheek to face him, tilting her chin with a delicate finer until she was looking up into his eyes. "Like Claire's had to live without Charlie… like I'll have to live without Juliet."

Kate shook her head, shaking off his gentle hold of her at this. "It's too hard." She choked.

"It's never easy, for anyone to live without the ones they love…" He continued. "Do you think it was easy for Jack to do what he did? He did it for you Freckles! He died so you could live! Are you really going to let everything he did be in vein, and throw it all away?"

Kate looked back at him with bewildered astonishment, the tears still glistened in her eyes and against her soft and pale cheeks, but she shook her head slowly.

"I never thought I'd hear you of all people sticking up for Jack." She smiled.

"Things change Freckles." Sawyer sighed, as he wrapped his arms tightly around her slender form for the last time and pulled her into a tight and reassuring embrace. Kate settled down into the safe and comforting fold of his arms… the man she was going to have to learn to rely on from now on… the only one now left alive who truly understood what she was going through. "People change… this island's changed us all. I get the feeling nothing after this is going to be quite the same again."


End file.
